Erasmo Ramirez appears to be getting call from Mariners

The Mariners open a four-game series tonight against the Boston Red Sox at Safeco Field.

Erasmo Ramirez last pitched on Friday in Class AAA and would have an extra day’s rest if he’s to go on Thursday afternoon for the Mariners. And that’s exactly what the team appears to have in mind when it comes to replacing Jeremy Bonderman in the rotation.

Mariners manager Eric Wedge said this afternoon that a AAA pitcher would be replacing Bonderman.

“We’re going to need another starter for Thursday, so we’ll be pulling somebody up for that,” Wedge said.

When asked whether he’d already decided on who is coming, Wedge said: “We know who it’s going to be. Nothing I can release right now, but we’ll have to make that move obviously y Thursday.”

There aren’t a whole lot of options in AAA. As mentioned earlier, Taijuan Walker pitched last night and would not be able to take another turn on normal rest until Friday. Danny Hultzen got hurt in late June and hasn’t pitched in a game since. James Paxton is pitching for AAA Tacoma tonight, so he’s out. Hector Noesi has worked five innings only once the past month and lately has thrown around three frames per outing in relief.

As for internal options, Blake Beavan has been stretched out enough. But he hasn’t pitched in eight days and you probably don’t want to risk starting a guy on that much extra rest if there’s a AAA option available.

When it comes to the open roster spot, Stephen Pryor is throwing a simulated game on Wednesday and will be eligible to come off the 60-day DL shortly, which would require him to be added back to the roster.

Joining him in that simualted game will be Michael Morse and Franklin Gutierrez.

Wedge said Bonderman being DFA is more about who the Mariners have coming up the pipeline rather than the veteran getting shelled in consecutive outings.

“It’s really more about who’s coming than versus that,” he said. “I think when you talk about Bondo, you’ve got to really appreciate his effort and what he’s done to get back to where he is. But we still feel there’s some more work to do there. Again, it’s more about who we’re bringing up than anything.”

Remember, the Mariners can still attempt to outright Bonderman back to AAA if he passes through waivers.

Lucas Luetge has been called up to take Bonderman’s major league spot for now. Luetge was eating at a PF Chang’s restaurant in Salt Lake City on Friday when he opened his fortune cookie. In it, the paper read: “Next Monday will be a lucky day for you.”

I know that the cookie’s paper said this because Luetge kept it and brought it with him to Seattle.

“I’ve never had a fortune cookie be that specific,” he said. “I didn’t tell anybody about it — not even my wife — until I found out for sure that I was coming back up.”

Luetge had turned things around in AAA of late after a rough start following his late-May demotion by the Mariners.

“I had about a two-week stretch where it was the worst baseball of my life and it took a mental toll,” he said. “I could have been trying for an intentional walk and they still would have hit it.”